How To Get Started Quickly on a New Contact Center

You’re not alone if you’re feeling growing pressure to modernize your contact center. A recent survey reported that 65% of organizations say they’re integrating AI into their call center suites, leading to a need to upgrade the contact center.

As more companies come to the realization that their contact centers are due for an update, many are asking what it takes to quickly stand up a new system. Here’s what I tell my own clients when implementation is among their top priorities.

Without a doubt, the most important place to start is with your contact center team. Ask them what’s working and what needs improvement, what tools are outdated and what features are missing.

Similarly, consider the impact that a new contact center will have on your company, and especially on your customers. One recent survey of senior business leaders found nearly 60% were investing in systems that would help customers better help themselves, while about half said they were interested in improving productivity and reducing operating costs.

Most contact center deployments today involve easily scalable cloud-based platforms with built-in AI and automation capabilities. Look for features such as live chat and video messaging, real-time reporting, and AI tools that generate meeting summaries and analyze customer engagement. My recommendation: Test out products from a variety of vendors, as Microsoft, Cisco Webex, and RingCentral also offer highly rated solutions

It may seem counterintuitive, but rolling out a contact center in stages typically delivers value faster than trying to do everything at once. Your agents will have time to become familiar with their new tools and build confidence in their ability to help customers, while IT can make sure the platform is firing on all cylinders before finalizing workflows and system integrations.

With past customers I have worked with, I took a crawl-walk-run approach that spanned everything from strategic planning to staff training on the new system. Breaking up the project into milestones such as focusing on internal communications, upgrading the phone and team collaboration tools, and then moving to the contact center itself allows agents to acclimate to the system prior to going live.

If you want to launch a new contact center overnight, that’s definitely a possibility. But my advice is to not rush the process — that’s the quickest way to succeed in the end.